Go say hi to the new neighbours

An Atheist Medical Student Stuck in a Land of a Million Gods. Avicenna is a British Indian medical student working on his clinical rotations in the land of his ancestors.

While I’m (relatively) new to Avicenna’s blog, he has quickly emerged in my mind as a voice that can’t (and shouldn’t) be ignored. While we don’t agree on everything (his recent ‘baggy pants’ post made me rage a bit), he’s a fearless advocate and will add distinctiveness and a new perspective to the FTBorg, so I am turbo-pumped that he’s agreed to join up. As a bonus, he’s posted a sort of ‘best of’ collection at his blog today, so that’s good news.

If atheism is a religion, then not collecting stamps is a hobby. Since 2008, NonStampCollector has been making anti-theistic videos on youtube, criticizing as many aspects of Christianity as stick-figures and bubble-headed cartoon caricatures will allow. After being ‘born again’ as a teenager, then enduring a slow, drawn-out, miserable deconversion, he did little about his atheism until discovering the work of Christopher Hitchens in 2007, and immediately joining the debate. A short time later, an imaginary dialogue between God and an atheist, literally scribbled on the back of an envelope, came to be the script of the first of over 50 youtube videos pointing out the shortcomings of Christian theology and apologetics that have accumulated more than seven million views. From Sydney, Australia, now living in western Japan.

If you’ve deconverted in the age of YouTube, there’s a fairly even chance that you’ve come across at least one of NonStampCollector’s hilarious and insightful Youtube videos. Heck, I’ve been a fan for a long time. As he explains in his opening post, the YouTube videos he makes take a long time to create, but he has a lot more to say and would like to transition into blogging, and he’s agreed to do that here at FTB. It’s a big coup for us, so we’re overjoyed to have him.